The Off Topic Topic

[Liep]

Jensen.

[Josquius]

What does it mean?
Most distinctive to my mind sounds like rarest but obviously not. Most common in each state? Seems too simple....

[Syt]

I'd think they may have defined distinctive as the one name most frequent that occurs more often in one state than in any others?

[DGuller]

I'd think they may have defined distinctive as the one name most frequent that occurs more often in one state than in any others?

But then you wouldn't have any duplicates, would you?

[garbon]

I'd think they may have defined distinctive as the one name most frequent that occurs more often in one state than in any others?

But then you wouldn't have any duplicates, would you?

If only there were some way of finding out what they did.

http://mentalfloss.com/article/86866/most-distinctive-last-names-state

According to the most recent publicly available U.S. Census data from the year 2000, the five most common last names in the United States are Smith, Johnson, Williams, Brown, and Jones. But what are the regional variations? While the Census Bureau breaks out each last name by race and ethnicity, it doesn't provide a count by state. There are other data sources, however. In 2014 Ancestry.com ran the numbers from their own database, and compiled the top three most common last names by state. With the exception of the Southwest states and Hawaii, the top few names nationwide tended to also dominate the state-specific rankings.

However, another way to uncover regional differences at the state level is to calculate the most distinctive last name by state. Using a methodology similar to the "Most Distinctive Obituary Euphemism for 'Died' in Each State" map, I calculated the difference between the state and national prevalence of each of the top 250 last names nationwide, based on Social Security Administration data. The highest value gives the last name that is most distinctive to that state.

By and large, the results are reflective of each state's demographics and immigration history. In New England and Appalachia, Irish and English names dominate (Walsh, Sullivan, Payne). In the Midwest and Mountain States, German and Scandinavian names are common (Jensen, Snyder, Carlson). In California, Florida, and the Southwest, it's Latino names (Lopez, Hernandez, Gonzalez). New York and New Jersey's Jewish communities also show up (Cohen, Schwartz, Hoffman).

To see the top five names for each state and for more about the methods and sources used to create this map, visit this post at SimonKnowz.com.

[Valmy]

Spain had like five last names when they conquered the New World. I remember reading that that name Martinez was 18 times more common in Mexico than Smith was in the US.

[derspiess]

My next door neighbor in Ohio is a Snyder and one of my best friends growing in West Virginia was a McCoy.  It checks out.

[Josquius]

Spain had like five last names when they conquered the New World. I remember reading that that name Martinez was 18 times more common in Mexico than Smith was in the US.

Thank god the Koreans spent most of their history turtling.

[Ed Anger]

My next door neighbor in Ohio is a Snyder and one of my best friends growing in West Virginia was a McCoy.  It checks out.

I like your neighbor's pretzels.

[derspiess]

My next door neighbor in Ohio is a Snyder and one of my best friends growing in West Virginia was a McCoy.  It checks out.

I like your neighbor's pretzels.

Berlin or Hanover?

[The Brain]

Spain had like five last names when they conquered the New World. I remember reading that that name Martinez was 18 times more common in Mexico than Smith was in the US.

Thank god the Koreans spent most of their history turtling.

[celedhring]

Spain had like five last names when they conquered the New World. I remember reading that that name Martinez was 18 times more common in Mexico than Smith was in the US.

Basically what happened:

1) Fewer Spaniards migrated to America than say, Englishmen.
2) Those were mainly drawn from the south-west of the country.
3) A large amount of those were soldiers. "-ez" surnames were pretty common among that particular social group.

Being a soldier in the XVIth century was still an affair that required some means. So a disproportionate amount of soldiers were hidalgos (low nobility or descended from low nobility), where -ez surnames were prevalent. Typically during the Reconquista, hundreds of small noble families would be created as the Christian armies pushed south, and the "son of" (-ez) moniker was very often used as the family name. 

So you draw from a pool of men used to bear arms from south/south-west Spain. What are you gonna get? Tons of López, Martínez and Hernández.

[Syt]

Hurricane Matthew makes landfall in Haiti. 

[Valmy]

Les Cayes and Jérémie

[HVC]

So you all see the skull too, right?